36 Degrees
by Violet Beatrice Baudelaire
Summary: Where Alex is gay and keeping it a secret from everyone. That's not the only secret he has either...


**A/N: So I recently thought, what if Alex had secretly been gay in the movie and liked Stan? And this was the result of those thoughts. So just suspend your disbelief, it's a little out there I suppose...0_0**

 **DISCLAIMER: Just a fan of the movie, I don't own it.**

 **WARNINGS: Mild mentions of bullying...**

Alex remembered when he first saw Mark. He had been rushing to get to class, and this older boy he had never seen before had waved to him, calling out his name. It had freaked him out, especially since somehow the boy seemed vaguely familiar despite the fact that he was a total stranger. Alex had enough trouble at school from Stan and the basketball team. The new boy, whoever he was, had seemed friendly but Alex could not trust him. For all he knew, Mark could have been worse than his other bullies. And yet he had found it hard to get the other teenager out of his mind. He put that down to Mark being attractive. He had that wholesome All-American boy vibe, with his golden tan, carefully styled brown locks, bright blue eyes and blindingly white smile.

It seemed like Alex had a thing for older, good looking boys, who were completely wrong for him and caused him nothing but trouble since he had been seeing Stan for months now. The older boy who had bullied him relentlessly since Alex had first set foot in Hayden High. The boy who was dating his sister, Maggie.

The truth was that Alex had always had a crush on Stan, with his bad boy persona, tattoos and his undeniable striking features. Tousled hair he had dyed blond, electric blue eyes and the ever present smirk on his face. Even before Stan had started dating Maggie, there had been plenty of reasons for Alex to keep his distance from Stan. Alex had never wanted Stan to know about the crush he had. He was not even out yet. And Alex did not plan on coming out until after high school. He already had a hard time at school now; if everyone knew he was gay it would have been a million worse. And he had been so scared that Stan, who Alex had been convinced was 100% straight, would find out. Stan was very unpredictable and did have some psychopathic tendencies. He had never badly hurt Alex before, but if he found out then who knew what he would do? So Alex had pointedly made a habit of disappearing whenever he saw Stan. However, Stan had made it impossible for Alex to avoid him as much as he wanted too. The tattooed senior had ensured that Alex was a loner at school, nobody wanted to risk Stan's wrath by befriending Alex. Stan bullied lots of students, but it seemed like his favourite person to torment was Alex.

It made no sense for Alex to like Stan after everything the older boy had put him through, but he could not help it. His mind told him he was crazy to like Stan, but his heart and body said it was okay. Everything had been fine, to a certain degree, until the day Stan started dating his sister. Then Stan would show up unannounced at the O'Donnell household, sometimes even when Maggie was not around. One time, Alex had found Stan searching through the drawers in his room. Alex had already taken to the habit of hiding a Playboy magazine under his bed, as part of his cover. He had posters up on his wall of Lara Croft and Megan Fox but he much preferred to look at his superhero posters. His room was just a typical teenage boy's room, except for the fact that Alex liked to keep his room tidy. Everyone in his family was totally in the dark that he was not straight. His mom was busy trying to get her landscaping business started, his dad had been kicked out of the house so was not really around much, and Maggie was too absorbed in her own life to care. So it was pretty easy to keep them not knowing the truth. Although Alex had the feeling that perhaps Stan suspected Alex was gay. Alex tried not to, but he could not help staring at Stan sometimes and he knew Stan noticed. People tended to write Stan off as a stereotypical dumb jock, but Alex knew Stan was not an idiot. He was not keen on school work, so he did not get great grades, but he was perceptive and smart. Smart enough to figure out Alex's complicated laptop password so he could look at the internet browser history which unfortunately had a list of sites that Alex visited when he was sure he would be alone in the house for a while. Sites that he usually would clear from his browser history, but he had gotten lazy and forgotten to do it lately. So as Alex had stood in his bedroom, with Stan staring at him intensely, he had been terrified of what was going to happen.

Stan had stormed up to him and Alex had steeled himself for a punch, but instead of a punch Stan had pushed him up against his bedroom wall and kissed him. Before Alex even had time to process what was happening, he had shoved his tongue down Alex's throat. Alex had been shocked, but he had gone along with it. He told himself he was just too afraid of Stan's reaction if he refused to respond, but really he had just wanted to kiss the older boy. It was something he had imagined happening but had never thought would become reality, and it had been great. Very awkward, as Alex had never been kissed before – except for his girlfriend way back in kindergarten – and that hardly counted, but still Alex had enjoyed himself. It was like some bizarre dream, except he was not sure if it was a good fantasy or a nightmare. Then Stan had just left without a word, which left Alex with so many unanswered questions and the horrible guilt because he had kissed his sister's boyfriend. The next time they met, it was at school and Stan was back to his usual self, complete with acerbic insults and a menacing demeanour. Alex had ended up being tossed in one of the school's filthy garbage dumpsters and trapped there for an hour, courtesy of Stan and the basketball team. Everything went back to normal in Alex's world, and he tried to not think about the kiss with Stan, but it was hard when he saw Stan. Especially when Stan spent a lot of his time with his lips glued to Maggie's lips. It was wrong, he knew, but Alex felt pangs of jealousy towards Maggie. Had done since the day Maggie announced she was dating Stan. He had never liked any girl Stan had dated in the past, but this was different. Maggie was his sister, and he loved her. Yet he couldn't just turn off his feelings for Stan, as much as he wished he could. So when Stan had pushed him into the janitor's closet and advanced upon him, he had given only a token protest before surrendering to Stan's demands for another kiss. Alex knew he was being selfish and a terrible brother, but he could not stop himself. Besides, Maggie had never cared about the fact that her boyfriend bullied her brother; she had never tried to stop the bullying. And that made his guilt slightly easier to bear, although he knew he was just finding excuses to try to justify what he was doing with Stan.

From that day, it had slowly built up to the point that whenever they were alone together they would be kissing, and eventually touching. Things may have gotten heated between them at times but Stan never pushed for more, which Alex felt relieved about. He wanted Stan badly but he knew he was not ready for sex. He had just barely become sixteen. By an unspoken agreement, Alex and Stan never told anyone what they were up to. However, Alex was surprised when Stan actually began to talk to him on a personal level although Maggie and Stan's ambiguous sexuality were topics that were off-limits from their private conversations. When they were alone together, Alex began to see a different side to Stan, which just made him like Stan even more. Alex did not want to think he was actually falling for Stan. That was a train of thought which would only lead to disaster. Stan was not even a friend, would never play an important part in Alex's life in future as he would be graduating Hayden High. That would signal an end of Stan and Alex, and probably an end of Stan and his sister's relationship. Maggie was going to Georgestown, and Stan was hopefully headed to community college while he worked part time at Home Depot. As much as Alex pretended he did not care about the time when Stan would leave school, he did care. It depressed him. Even though deep down knew Stan had to be just using him. If he had really liked Alex too, he would have broken up with Maggie and been nicer to him when they were around other people. He would have at least felt some remorse for bullying Alex, but he did not.

Alex had not been targeted by Stan and the basketball team for a few days, so he was not surprised when they burst in upon him in the boy's restroom armed with rolls of silver duct tape. He had struggled, but it had been no use. He had ended up taped to a toilet with his pants down. It was horribly humiliating, and he felt angry at Stan. He was used to Stan picking on him, and he tried not to let it affect him but today it seemed like Stan was going out of his way to make Alex feel like he was a loser. Alex had been left stuck in the toilet cubicle until he had heard someone come into the bathroom. He had not known who it was, but he just hoped it was someone who would help him and not laugh. It turned out to be Mark, which had made Alex feel even worse than he already did. Still, Mark had been kind enough to help him out. He really was new to school, since he had been shocked when Alex told him who had taped him to the toilet. Apparently Mark had assumed Alex was on the basketball team, which had amused Alex to no end. Mark also turned out be the son of Alex's honorary Uncle Ned, who had been his dad's best friend since high school. He also had told Alex that Uncle Ned had said they should look out for each other. Alex had been puzzled as to why he had never known about Mark before now and was willing to accept the story Mark gave him about his mom having been ashamed of having a child with Uncle Ned.

Truthfully he was just pleased he had made a new friend. Mark had promised to help protect him from his bullies, which was great. However, Alex had not given a thought to how Mark and Stan would react to each other. As it happened, they reacted very badly to each other. Alex and Mark had been sitting in the cafeteria, eating lunch and talking. It was shaping up to be a good day for Alex after his awful morning. Stan was not in the cafeteria yet, Alex had kept his eyes trained in the direction of the cafeteria entrance for a while wondering when he would show up. Mark had thought he was staring at Nicole, the head cheerleader, so he had lied and gone along with it. The conversation had taken a strange turn when Mark had mentioned his mom, saying he had met her. When Alex had asked him about it, he had gone on to ask if Alex's mom was hot and then lamely mumbled that it was a joke. Alex had been distracted from thinking more about it because Stan had finally arrived in the cafeteria. He swaggered in with some of his friends, stealing some poor kid's sandwich. Alex had lied again, saying he hated Stan. Mark had gotten annoyed when he found out that Stan was dating Maggie, and for a few moments had sounded a lot like Alex's dad. This did creep Alex out, since this was Alex's friend who admittedly was easy on the eyes. Not that Alex liked him in that way, and besides he was messing around with Stan. Also, Mark was straight anyway so it did not even matter.

Mark had stared at Stan, even after Alex had warned him not to. Of course, Stan had taken it personally and come over to their table. Stan had hassled Alex a little, calling him one of his more inventive insults 'twinkle-douche' and bouncing a basketball against his head. Alex was not too fussed by this but it had angered Mark, who immediately stood up and told Stan off. Alex had been impressed with Mark's bravery, although he was worried about what Stan would do to Mark. There was a heavy tension in the air between them, but it lightened when Mark proclaimed he would call Stan's father. There was laughter from Stan and the other students in the cafeteria who had their attention riveted on the two boy's conversation. However, the laughter soon faded away when Mark not only had the audacity to take Stan's basketball, but also gave Stan a humiliating dressing down, listing three reasons why Stan could be a bully. Stan made an effort to pretend not to care but Alex could tell it was affecting him and he had stopped trying to pretend he was fine with what Mark was saying when the third reason was that he might not be not well endowed. Which was not true, but no guy would like anyone to think that and Stan was very proud of himself so it dealt a blow to his confidence. As Mark was explaining the reasons, everyone burst into laughter again, but this time they were laughing at Stan. Alex felt really bad for Stan. Yet there was part of him that was still angry with Stan for his earlier mean antics, the part of him that still resented Stan for the way he bullied Alex and treated him like some kind of toy, that was glad that Stan was finally getting payback for all the times he had tormented Alex and other students at Hayden High. So he did laugh along with the others, although he felt ashamed that he had afterwards.

After that day, Mark and Stan had become enemies, and Alex felt like he was caught in the middle.

 **Thanks for reading :)**


End file.
